McCallum says information-sharing protocol to be finalized by end of year

President of the Treasury Board Scott Brison, Minister of Immigration John McCallum, Minister of Veterans Affairs Kent Hehr, Minister of Defence Harjitt Sajjan and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale respond to the Auditor General of Canada's spring report in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 3, 2016. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood

Responding to weaknesses flagged in today’s auditor general’s report, Immigration Minister John McCallum said his ministry, the RCMP and the Canada Boarder Security Agency (CBSA) will have their information-sharing protocol finalized by December 2016.

The report also criticised the lack of information sharing between the ministry, the RCMP, and the CBSA. The lack of communication between the departments left the citizenship officers in the dark on applicants criminal behaviour or those providing false residency claims.

In addition to a formalized protocol by the end of the year, in a press release, he said a “Program Integrity Framework to identify and manage fraud risks in the Citizenship program” should be expected in a similar time frame.

He also welcomed the auditor general’s recommendations and said they would all be implemented. There is a provision in Bill C-6, which is currently going before the House of Parliament, he said, that gives additional powers to officials to seize documents they deem fraudulent.

If the bill passes, it will have addressed one of the auditor’s recommendations, he said.

He also noted that his department had reviewed all the cases flagged by the office of the auditor general and “as a result, we’ve opened investigations toward possible citizenship revocation from about a dozen individuals,” he said in the press release.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said all the initial criminal checks were done properly, according to the report. He said improvement is needed between the time the check is done and when someone takes the citizenship oath.

“That’s where the improvement needs to take place. Either in terms of moving the date of the check, so it’s closer to the oath ceremony instead of the beginning of the process, or a full last- minute check just before the oath and the information is brought forward.”

Despite the loopholes and gap within the citizenship process, the audit highlighted, McCallum is “confident in the overall integrity of the system, and I am confident as well that it needs to be improved.”

He said citizens refused citizenship based on criminality or improper residence amount to less than one per cent of per annum.